Jeff blogs the 2nd half of his trip to Melbourne to speak at this year's Semi-Permanent.

The Urban Hotel had good room service food. Almost every day it was easier to order something in the morning and get started with some energy, than to look around St. Kilda for a quick breakfast. "Crispy Bacon" in Australia (as well as the UK) seems to be "soft floppy bacon" to me. I guess in the US we crisp the hell out of it. I like both varieties, bacon is just good.
This was the first day of the Semi Permanent conference. It's a seminar series with speakers from the design world, photography, motion graphics, film, special effect, and of course, illustration/art. I had such a good time hearing the different speakers, we're all connected through our visual culture but each of us comes from very different worlds.

This was the first year they held it in Melbourne. The convention center looked pretty cool. Slanted lines everywhere. Melbourne seems to have lots of crooked architecture, diagonal lines and futurism mixed with... something (remnants of British colonial style??).

This is Luke Lucas. The first speaker and one of my favorites. He is responsible for the magazine Lifelounge, if you have not seen it, get a copy now! Luke is a master at working with type, he does very inspiring and clever work. Great to meet him!

In between speakers I explored the convention center and found more futuristic rooms.

Burger Rings? I was tempted to try them, but decided against it. Also Cheetos Cheese & Bacon Balls. Different. I decided to pass. Snacks are expensive in Oz...

More diagonal architecture around the convention center...

Bathroom shot.

Tara McPherson gave her talk in the afternoon, very cool to see her story and her process. We are old Art Center buddies, so it was neat to see how far we have come.

More weird and cool architecture. Southern Cross Station... Sometimes I kinda felt like I was in the city of Macross.

Then the next day came, I did my talk, threw out some stickers, cough drops, toys, and candy to the audience. Helped me loosen up, and I think it warmed up the crowd. The talk went good, I think.. yeah, I'm sure it went good. I felt a strange clarity up there on stage, like I was in control of my destiny and 100% not nervous for the first time talking in front of so many people. Maybe I am just getting used to public speaking over the years. Took a quick iPhone craptastic picture of the audience. This is just the middle row, there are rows to the side and a whole upper deck area. Thanks all you attendees for the warm response I received! I had a blast and met some great Australians.

Alex Jaeger from ILM was the last speaker. On his way over from LAX their 747 hit a bird which smashed the nosecone and took out their weather radar. They had to dump the fuel and return. Read about it here. Very interesting talk, I'm always fascinated by special effects and entertainment design. Alex had some great work to show the audience, and of course ILM has such a rich history and has been so inspirational to artists over the years. I really respect these guys. For a while it was my goal to work in that industry, and about ten years ago I made a decision to pursue painting and illustration rather than entertainment design. Still a lot of love for all that though..

After the conference I ate a weird meal. Some sort of cold chicken/ham/pistachio loaf. Pretty much the funkiest meal I had there. I should have asked what it was before ordering haha! Wasn't terribly bad, but I was cold the whole time and a cold meal was not what I had in mind!

Martin McIntosh is the best. Thanks again for all the rides!

Went to the Semi Permanent after party. The band was pretty dope- The Scare. Singer was doing some crazy shit. I don't see much live music being a family guy, I like shows but would rather be at home with the kidlets. So it was nice to feel the loud music and drink a few beers.

The party was down this seedy alley. Very Motley Crew...

A Luke Lucas poster. Hells yeah..

At first I was confused- is this Jack in the Box or Burger King? Definitely the BK logo.

Parrots are all over. Found this on the ground.

Tim Tams- very good!

The next day I had a signing with Tara at Outre Gallery. Didn't get any good pics. Anyone out there have any?

The day before Tara suggested the Eggs Benedict breakfast. I'm always a little freaked out by yolk. Everyone thinks I'm crazy- "Yolk is goood!" they say, but I dunno. It's weird man. So runny. Yolk. Even the name is weird. She was right though, this was very good! I think the rocket added some nice flavor to it.

Put up stickers all over. I am such a vandal haha...

Never heard of these... they were like Cheetos but a little different.

More food. Vietnamese. I never did get to eat a proper Australian meal. Went to a place that had Kangaroo steaks but they were all out. Apparently, they don't raise them as food, they actually have to go out and shoot them in the wild. I asked somewhere if they had Koala meat and they laughed at me.

Angelique Houtkamp and her husband Peter were in town for the opening of her show at Outre Gallery. Very nice people, and Angelique is a talented watercolorist. It was nice spending time with them.

Along with them was Dutch photographer duo Fotofloor!

This was the next morning, a view out my window. My last day. I was supposed to paint at Hosier Lane, but the news said it'd be raining all day. It was cold, windy, and I needed to find spraypaint and acrylics, so I decided against it. I am from Southern California, I am a wuss when it gets colder than 50 degrees.

Ordered some breakfast and watched some TV.

Decided to get some artwork done. I brought a bunch of supplies but hadn't had free time to make art till the end. Inks, watercolors and acrylics. Nice diffused lighting from the overcast Melbourne sky. Worked in a lot of geometrics- triangles, diamonds, diagonals- I guess reacting to my surroundings.

After a few hours I needed to get out, rain or shine. No fun to stay cooped up in a hotel in a new city.

Took the tram into the city, explored a bit, and went to Rialto Towers. It is the second tallest building in Melbourne and has an observation deck. I'm a sucker for high up places like this. I have a feeling most Melbournians have not been up here, just like most NYers have not been up the Empire State Building. It was pretty neat, and cold and windy.

Walked around St. Kilda some more...

Finally it rained. I made it back in time and modeled the koala mask I got for Shannon.

Worked on these pieces a bit more...

Next morning, on my way back. Qantas was nice to fly with. They call you "Luv" and ask for your "rubbish". I watched Star Trek on the way home but fell asleep somewhere in the middle. I was away one week. I was really missing Jennifer and the girls. Always good to return home to hugs and smiles! That's what it's all about... and it's also all about bringing home weird foreign candy bars.

We haven't been featuring many interviews as of late. Let's change that up as we check in with a few local San Francisco artists like Kevin Earl Taylor here whom we studio visited back in 2009 (PHOTOS & VIDEO). It's been awhile, Kevin...

If you like guns and boobs, head on over to the Shooting Gallery; just don't expect the work to be all cheap ploys and hot chicks. With Make Stuff by Peter Gronquist (Portland) in the main space and Morgan Slade's Snake in the Eagle's Shadow in the project space, there is plenty spectacle to be had, but if you look just beyond it, you might actually get something out of the shows.

Fifty24SF opened Street Anatomy, a new solo show by Austrian artist Nychos a week ago last Friday night. He's been steadily filling our city with murals over the last year, with one downtown on Geary St. last summer, and new ones both in the Haight and in Oakland within the last few weeks, but it was really great to see his work up close and in such detail.

Congrats on our buddies at Needles and Pens on being open and rad for 11 years now. Mission Local did this little short video featuring Breezy giving a little heads up on what Needles and Pens is all about.

Matt Wagner recently emailed over some photos from The Hellion Gallery in Tokyo, who recently put together a show with AJ Fosik (Portland) called Beast From a Foreign Land. The gallery gave twelve of Fosik's sculptures to twelve Japanese artists (including Hiro Kurata who is currently showing in our group show Salt the Skies) to paint, burn, or build upon.

Backwoods Gallery in Melbourne played host to a huge group exhibition a couple of weeks back, with "Gold Blood, Magic Weirdos" Curated by Melbourne artist Sean Morris. Gold Blood brought together 25 talented painters, illustrators and comic artists from Australia, the US, Singapore, England, France and Spain - and marked the end of the Magic Weirdos trilogy, following shows in Perth in 2012 and London in 2013.

San Francisco based Fecal Pal Jeremy Fish opened his latest solo show Hunting Trophies at LA's Mark Moore Gallery last week to massive crowds and cabin walls lined with imagery pertaining to modern conquest and obsession.

Well, John Felix Arnold III is at it again. This time, he and Carolyn LeBourgios packed an entire show into the back of a Prius and drove across the country to install it at Superchief Gallery in NYC. I met with him last week as he told me about the trip over delicious burritos at Taqueria Cancun (which is right across the street from FFDG and serves what I think is the best burrito in the city) as the self proclaimed "Only overweight artist in the game" spilled all the details.

Ever Gold opened a new solo show by NYC based Henry Gunderson a couple Saturday nights ago and it was literally packed. So packed I couldn't actually see most of the art - but a big crowd doesn't seem like a problem. I got a good laugh at what I would call the 'cock climbing wall' as it was one of the few pieces I could see over the crowd. I haven't gotten a chance to go back and check it all out again, but I'm definitely going to as the paintings that I could get a peek at were really high quality and intruiguing. You should do the same.

The paintings in the show are each influenced by a musician, ranging from Freddy Mercury, to Madonna, to A Tribe Called Quest and they are so stylistically consistent with each musician's persona that they read as a cohesive body of work with incredible variation. If you told me they were each painted by a different person, I would not hesitate to believe you and it's really great to see a solo show with so much variety. The show is fun, poppy, very well done, and absolutely worth a look and maybe even a listen.

With rising rent in SF and knowing mostly other young artists without capitol, I desired a way to live rent free, have a space to do my craft, and get to see more of the world. Inspired by the many historical artists who have longed similar longings I discovered the beauty of artist residencies. Lilo runs Adhoc Collective in Vienna which not only has a fully equipped artists creative studio, but an indoor halfpipe, and private artist quarters. It was like a modern day castle or skate cathedral. It exists in almost a utopic state, totally free to those that apply and come with a real passion for both art and skateboarding

I just wanted to share with you a piece I recently finished which took me 4 years to complete. Titled "How To Lose Yourself Completely (The September Issue)", it consists of a copy of the September 2007 issue of Vogue magazine (the issue they made the documentary about) with all faces masked with a sharpie, and everything else entirely whited out. 840 pages of fun. -Bryan Schnelle

Jeremy Fish opens Hunting Trophies tonight, Saturday April 5th, at the Los Angeles based Mark Moore Gallery. The show features new work from Fish inside the "hunting lodge" where viewers climb inside the head of the hunter and explore the history of all the animals he's killed.

Beautiful piece entitled "The Albatross and the Shipping Container", Ink on Paper, Mounted to Panel, 47" Diameter, by San Francisco based Martin Machado now on display at FFDG. Stop in Saturday (1-6pm) to view the group show "Salt the Skies" now running through April 19th. 2277 Mission St. at 19th.

For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to quit my job, move out of my house, leave everything and travel again. So on August 21, 2013 I pushed a canoe packed full of gear into the headwaters of the Mississippi River in Lake Itasca, Minnesota, along with four of my best friends. Exactly 100 days later, I arrived at a marina near the Gulf of Mexico in a sailboat.